Several weeks ago Liberty Dispatch received a story from a contributor who had a good track record of writing articles that raised important questions about some of the actions of our local public officials. In good faith Liberty Dispatch posted the story and stood behind it until some of what the contributor alleged seemed to be in conflict with the facts. Even though the part of the story in question was not necessarily the major thrust of the story, it still had political and personal implications.
The thrust of the article revolved around the alleged criminal acts of Assistant District Attorney Joe Warren and his gun wielding threats against his neighbors after his boxer dug underneath a fence and died in a retaliatory counter attack after the dog attacked a puppy. We have no reason to believe Joe Warren’s actions are any less criminal than originally reported, but the contributor also implicated some kind of wrong doing or incompetence by Justice of the Peace Bobby Rader. A great deal of the information about Rader was wrong and the result of poor investigating.
Sources have told Liberty Dispatch that Judge Rader made the contributor aware of the mistakes in the article and that Rader was told it would be corrected. The correction at the time this article is being prepared to post has not come.
While awaiting a possible interview of Judge Rader by the contributor (and a retraction), Liberty Dispatch has posted three articles pointing out the commitment and the fine work Judge Rader has done for this community. After each article the contributor (and/or associates of the contributor) has become very indignant. Rather than prepare an apology and a correction, it appears the contributor has been spending more time and effort trying to dig up dirt on Judge Rader.
When every one of the contributor’s new allegations proved to be false, the contributor (and/or associates of the contributor) began threatening the people writing positive articles about Judge Rader. With multiple vile and curse-filled phone conversations threatening to expose one of our contributor’s child’s youthful indiscretions and making up all kinds of nasty lies about one of the wives of our contributors.
Liberty Dispatch has posted some serious allegations on this website. We have not posted things we have known to be untrue. In fact Liberty Dispatch knows there is enough evidence on some of the allegations we have posted to arrest, indict, and convict certain individuals. Like everyone else we wait impatiently and wonder what is wrong with our local system of justice that nothing has been done about some of these allegations. But in the case of the comments about Judge Rader, we have come to the conclusion that not only will there be no retraction by the contributor, but that they will continue to look for something to damage Judge Rader with. That is simply unconscionable to us.
Judge Rader they have not fulfilled their promise of a retraction to you, but we intend for this to be the next best thing. We waited and it never came. Though our posting of this article may be met with all kinds of more allegations, we will not ignore the injustice committed against you.
Liberty Dispatch is no stranger to hardball politics. We are not whining about it or claiming victim status. We are once again just presenting the facts as we know them to be. We stand behind the stories applauding Judge Rader and his work in this community and we repudiate the contributor’s efforts to put Judge Rader in a light that the facts simply do not support.
As for the threats to those connected with this website, our reporting on this story is not necessarily over if someone really wants to play hardball. Years of threats by a dominant Democratic party have hardened us to even the idea of relenting to avoid some kind of effort to spin and embarrass us. Even though dragging children and wives into a political argument about how public officials are doing their jobs is a new all time low, we still believe the public (when informed) will be fair and just in forming their opinions. We stand prepared to redirect any stones thrown in the wrong direction and any stories that do not ring true
To paraphrase a recent President, “bring it on”. In the world of politics we all live in glass houses.
Richard Pegues
Contributor
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